Signed and dated (lower right): fBoucher 1768

New York. Wildenstein & Co., Inc.. "François Boucher," November 12–December 19, 1980, no. 36.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "François Boucher, 1703–1770," February 17–May 4, 1986, no. 79.

Detroit. Detroit Institute of Arts. "François Boucher, 1703–1770," May 27–August 17, 1986, no. 79.

Paris. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. "François Boucher, 1703–1770," September 19, 1986–January 5, 1987, no. 79.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion," May 3–September 4, 2006, unnumbered cat. (p. 148).

Catalogue des objets d'art et d'ameublement et des tableaux anciens dépendant de la succession de M. le baron L. d'Ivry. Galerie Georges Petit, Paris. May 7–9, 1884, p. 4, no. 3, ill. (engraving by Eugène André Champollion).

Paul Eudel. L'Hôtel Drouot et la curiosité en 1883–1884. Paris, 1885, pp. 332–33, 335, records that after baron L. Roslin d'Ivry's death in 1841 [he actually died in 1839] the contents of his château at Hénonville were transferred by his son to his Paris hôtel, rue de la Baume, where the author "recently" saw the present picture and "Washerwomen" (MMA 53.225.2), displayed in an anteroom; states that at the 1884 sale the two pictures were bought in by the family for Fr 80,000.

H. Thirion. La vie privée des financiers au XVIIIe siècle. Paris, 1895, p. 332.

L. Soullié in collaboration with Charles Masson in André Michel. Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint et dessiné de François Boucher. Paris, [1906], p. 81, no. 1463.

Georges Pannier in Pierre de Nolhac. François Boucher, premier peintre du roi, 1703–1770. Paris, 1907, pp. 140, 156, describes it as the pendant to "The Washerwomen" [MMA 53.225.2].

W. G. Menzies in Haldane Macfall. Boucher: The Man, His Times, His Art, and His Significance, 1703–1770. London, 1908, pp. 149, 153, mistakenly lists it as sold in 1844.

"Ninety-first Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year 1960–1961." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 20 (October 1961), pp. 35, 45, ill.

"Nouvelles acquisitions dans les musées durant l'année 1961." Chronique des arts et de la curiosité, supplément à la Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., no. 1117 (February 1962), p. 25, ill., list it among new acquisitions by American museums.

Elizabeth E. Gardner. "Four French Paintings from the Berwind Collection." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 20 (May 1962), pp. 265–67, ill. (overall and detail), speculates that this painting and its pendant were commissioned by Jean Marie Roslin, seigneur d'Ivry and "maître des requêtes," for his Château de Bouglainval, near Maintenon.

Alexandre Ananoff with the collaboration of Daniel Wildenstein. François Boucher. 2, Lausanne, 1976, vol. 1, p. 214; vol. 2, pp. 279–80, no. 654, ill., call it "La halte" or "La fête du berger" and state that this picture and its pendant formed a group with nos. 682 and 683, both dated 1769 (collection Charles Alexander, New York); believe all four paintings were made for the duc de Richelieu, sold with his estate in 1852, and purchased as a group by baron Rothschild [however, in the entry for our paintings confuse the locations for nos. 682 and 683 with those for nos. 82 and 83 (Frick Art Museum, Pittsburgh, and Chrysler Collection, Norfolk); and in the entry for nos. 82 and 83, both dated 1732, claim, presumably in confusion, that these pictures were part of a suite with ours].

Mario Amaya and Eric M. Zafran. Treasures from The Chrysler Museum at Norfolk and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Exh. cat., Tenn. Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville. Norfolk, Va., 1977, unpaginated, under no. 22, follow Ananoff's confusing lead (see Ref. 1976) and connect our pendants with the Chrysler and Frick pictures; comment that the latter were produced by the artist in 1732 for the reception hall of the duc de Richelieu, and that our paintings were commissioned by Richelieu and added to this room late in the artist's life [ie. in 1768].

Donald Posner. "Book Reviews." Art Bulletin 60 (September 1978), p. 561, observes that Ananoff (see Ref. 1976) has confused, as pendants to this picture, his cat. nos. 82 and 83 with nos. 682 and 683, and has given the provenance of the latter to the former.

Regina Shoolman Slatkin. "The New Boucher Catalogue (Alexandre Ananoff)." Burlington Magazine 121 (February 1979), p. 120, states that the picture and its pendant, together with the Norfolk and Pittsburgh paintings, are "known to have formed the décor of the Salon de Réception in the Hôtel of the Duc de Richelieu" [but see Ref. Ananoff 1976, which she is following].

Alexandre Ananoff with the collaboration of Daniel Wildenstein. L'opera completa di Boucher. Milan, 1980, pp. 140–41, no. 692, colorpl. 58, state that this picture and its pendant, no. 693, formed a suite with nos. 720–21 (private collection, New York) and were together in the collection of the duc de Richelieu until his 1852 sale; mention a preparatory study for the present work in the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Denys Sutton. François Boucher. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, 1980, pp. 17, 45, no. 36, fig. 39, notes that although Posner proposes that it was the "Village Idyll" and the the "Contented Fisherman" (Charles B. Alexander Collection, New York) that originally formed a group with the present picture and its pendant, the measurements of these differ greatly from our pair, which is not the case with the earlier ones in Pittsburgh and Norfolk [see Ref. Ananaoff and Wildenstein 1976, and confusion surrounding it, from which this discussion develops]; adds that the size of this painting suggests that Boucher was creating a composition analogous to those he designed for tapestries.

Jefferson C. Harrison. French Paintings from The Chrysler Museum. Exh. cat., Chrysler Museum at Norfolk. Norfolk, Va., 1986, p. 24 n. 5, wonders that Ananoff [apparently in confusion, see Ref. 1976] associates the Chrsyler and Norfolk paintings with our pendants, which are considerably later.

Alastair Laing in François Boucher, 1703–1770. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1986, pp. 163, 305–9, no. 79, ill. (color) [French ed., 1986, pp. 167, 308–12, no. 79, ill. (color)], comments on "a strong sentimentalizing process" in Boucher's late pastorales, specifically these pendants; suggests that its was the "Bonheur au Village" and "Halte à la fontaine" from the Bayerische Landesbank (now on deposit in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich) that once formed a decorative ensemble with the Pittsburgh and Norfolk pictures; notes that many of the figures here appear to be adaptations from pre-existing drawings or paintings, including the standing woman's pose which is adapted from one in a 1766 painting engraved as La chasse (Ananoff and Wildenstein no. 632); identifies Roslin d'Ivry as the probable patron for our pendants, noting that in 1768 he was "in the midst of great aggrandizement of Hénonville"; suggests that our pictures were intended to decorate the salon at the château and believes one of them was the "very large Picture" on which Sir Joshua Reynolds saw Boucher at work when he visited him in 1768.

Denys Sutton. "Frivolity and Reason." Apollo 125 (February 1987), p. 97, erroneously states that the picture and its pendant were purchased by the duc de Richelieu for his hôtel particulier in Paris.

Kimerly Rorschach in Claude to Corot: The Development of Landscape Painting in France. Exh. cat., Colnaghi. New York, 1990, pp. 112–13, ill., remarks that although the setting does not represent a garden as such, the implied garden signaled by the inclusion of the sculpted fountain helps convey the painting's erotic intent.

Mary D. Sheriff. "Boucher's Enchanted Islands." Rethinking Boucher. Los Angeles, 2006, p. 161, compares a scene described in Louis-Antoine de Bougainville's 1771 travelogue, "Voyage autour du monde, par la frégate du roi la Boudeuse et la flûte l'Étoile," as resembling this pastoral fantasy by Boucher.